Bolavá Anna

Anna Bolavá (b. 1981) was born and grew up in South Bohemia. After graduating from the Faculty of Arts of Charles University, she worked for a healthcare company. She is now a freelancer. In 2013, she published Černý rok [Black Year], a collection of poems. She has since published several novels with Odeon. Her novel Do tmy [Into Darkness] (2015), about the gathering of medicinal herbs, won the prestigious Magnesia Litera for Prose; her second novel, the psychological thriller Ke dnu [Going Down] (2017), was nominated for the same award. Her so-called Řečovice trilogy concludes with the water sprite-themed novel Před povodní [Before the Flood] (2020); it was shortlisted for the European Prize for Literature. Vypravěč [The Narrator] (2022), Bolavá’s latest novel, is no less ambitious in terms of its content of mystery and mysticism and experimentation with composition. It was nominated for the Magnesia Litera and won Cena Česká kniha [Czech Book Award] in spring 2023. As well as novels, Anna Bolavá publishes shorter prose pieces and short stories in anthologies; she also works with Czech Radio. Into Darkness, her debut novel, has been translated into ten languages and twice adapted for the stage.   

Works translated into: Arabic, Bulgarian, German, Macedonian, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish and Ukrainian.